Jake grinned at me and I couldn't help but grin back. "No way that happened." I replied hesitantly.

Jake shook his head with disbelief. "Damn Sam you should really have more faith in your future boyfriends best friend."

I glared at him. "You too?!" I growled with frustration. It was hard enough to put up with the constant teases of Jodie and Cole but to have Jake join in? It was getting annoying.

He shrugged innocently. "What? Am I not allowed to ship?"

My eyes hardened. "No."

His electric blue eyes lit up. "But-"

"No!"

He huffed, crossing his arms and pouted. "That's exactly what Reece said." I rolled my eyes and averted my eyes from him to a glaring pair of brown ones across the room. I hated that I shared so many damn classes with that asshole. After what happened a couple days ago, whispers surrounded me whenever I walked in the corridors. People calling me dumb and clueless. I had been ignoring them and kept my head held high but it was draining when all I wanted to do was scream at them or punch them. Both preferably.

I dragged my eyes back to Jake. "Because were just friends." I paused and chuckled. "Well not really even friends. You know what, I don't know just drop it." I exclaimed and Jake held his hands up in a mocking surrender.

"Alright woman. No need to go ape shit on my perfect ass."

"Your ass is far from perfect Sanders."

He smirked. "Oh but it is Walker. Do you know how many girls have complemented my ass? Apparently it's my best feature which is surprising because I have another perfect organ." He wiggled his eye brows as I gave him a deadpan look in return. "But then again every part of me is perfect so." I rolled my eyes at his cockiness and playfully pushed his shoulder.

"Whatever you say pretty boy."

He held a hand against his heart with a wide grin. "You think I'm pretty?"

I leaned over and ruffled his blonde hair. "Definitely." I grinned back and he snatched my hand away from his hair and glared at me.

"Not the hair. Anything but the hair." He grimaced, slapping a hand on his hair and attempting to fix it.

I shook my head but chuckled to myself regardless. We had spent the entire hour in French just messing around and laughing with each other. To be honest, it distracted me from what everyone was saying about me. The 'scandal' with Amber happened on Wednesday and it was now Friday and I knew that it would all blow over by Monday. There would be something new that would happen over the weekend that would then be more worthy of gossip.

"Dickheads staring at you." Jake commented, his tone filled with malice. It was a sudden change to the teasing tone he had a second ago. I followed his glare and focused on the boy staring right back at me.

"For a smart boy he really doesn't take a hint." I murmured dryly.

Jake scoffed. "Smart my ass." He retorted and I couldn't help but laugh. French was my last period of the day and I couldn't wait for it to end. Dad was coming home on Sunday and I was just going to spend the entire evening chilling and watching movies. Jodie was on a date tonight and Cole was probably hooking up with yet another girl so I was all alone and then tomorrow night was the double date. An agonizingly slow ten minutes later, the shrill of the bell went off and a crowd of students hurried to the car park. I think there was a game going on tonight but I couldn't care less. I couldn't think of anything worse than watching the game when Adam was the team captain and Jackson and Brad were also on the team.

Eww.

Being a game also means a huge after party that I also couldn't be less interested in going to. Last year when I was dating Adam, I loved going to parties with him and I loved them in freshman and sophomore year. Me, Cole and Jodie would all go together but there not very fun to be around when Adam is there. I scurried to my car and climbed in the driver's seat and pulled away from the school as quickly as possible. I was more than excited to get away from this hell hole for two days. As I drove home, I smiled sadly at how we used to spend Friday nights back in middle school. Each week, the three of us would rotate houses on where we would hang out and spend the whole night watching movies and chatting until the sun rose. We each had our traditions. When we went to Cole's, his mum would cook us up an amazing meal, at Jodie's we would go out for dinner at a diner and go for ice cream after and at mine we would order pizza and bake cupcakes. It was no one's fault as to why we stopped, we just grew up. We were all 18 now apart from Cole who has his birthday in February and it was December next week.

When we went to high school, Cole began to get recognised by girls constantly who fought for his attention. Thinking about it, I don't really remember girls pining over Reece until sophomore year. I chuckled to myself, he must have been ugly in freshman year or maybe he had a major growth spurt in sophomore year. I barely even noticed who he was until junior year when Adam became my boyfriend. Shaking of the thoughts of Adam and Reece, I parked my car on the drive and headed inside for a relaxing evening to myself.

"Don't run upstairs, you stupid woman!" I yelled, throwing a piece of popcorn at the tv. Why was it in every horror movie, the lady runs straight past the front door and up the stairs when being chased. What idiotic mind set did these characters have? I groaned when I heard my phone ringing from the other side of the room so I threw my legs onto the ground from their dangling position and I crawled over to it, far too lazy to stand up and walk. I furrowed my eyebrows at the caller ID. Why the hell was he ringing me at 11.30 PM?

I shrugged and slid the answer button. Holding the phone to my ear I grinned. "What does my favourite damsel in distress need?"

I could hear the wind flapping about in the background and I narrowed my eyes. Why on earth was he outside in late November this late? His voice caught me off guard. "Sam I need a favour." This caught my attention. When the hell did he call me Sam and not Sammy or buttercup?

"What is it?" I asked warily, sitting up straight on the sofa.

Reece sighed. "Are you at home?"

"Yeah." I replied, wanting him to spit it out already.

"Can you pick me up?"

I rolled my eyes but stood up, placing the popcorn bowl on the table as I slid on my coat. "Yeah. Where are you?"

I could hear him breathe a sigh of relief before I quickly scowled. "Wait how do I know this isn't some revenge prank after that whole pool incident?" I questioned, hesitant that he was pulling a prank on me.

He sighed frustrated. "It's not a prank. I left my stupid car at home and I just need a ride. Can you do it or not?"

I rolled my eyes once again at his moodiness as I pulled on my shoes. "Fine. Where are you?" I repeated. He told me his address which I quickly put in my GPS and ran out to my car. The cold wind roared at my bare legs and I mentally scolded myself for not changing out of my pyjama shorts before leaving the house. Once I slammed the door shut, I began to drive through the deserted roads until I reached my destination. The radio was on low as I wasn't a huge fan of driving around on my own this late but Reece had dropped me off at the car shop so I owed him one. I put the car in park as I waited for Reece. I grabbed my phone and sent him a text.

A couple moments passed and I began to worry. Why wasn't he here yet? I noticed it wasn't the best area of town but I didn't want to be judgemental. Just because it was a sketchy area didn't always mean the people were too. Scrap that, this place was scary as hell. I half expected my tires to be slashed and my car stolen. I hadn't even noticed someone approaching my car until the door swung open and I screamed.

Reece clammed his hands over his ears as he jumped into the passenger seat. "Fucking hell Sammy." He muttered and when I heard his usual deep voice I slammed my mouth shut and breathed a huge sigh of relief. Knowing it was him had instantly calmed me and I couldn't even tell you why.

"What on earth are you doing here?" I asked, throwing my phone down into the cup holders and turning to look at him.

He was purposely not looking at me so I narrowed my eyes at him. "Reece?"

Without turning to spare me a glance he grunted. "Just drive."

I huffed. "Not until you look at me."

He groaned and quickly spared me a glance before turning back around. "Happy?" His tone was sarcastic as he stared out the window. If it wasn't for the tiny speck of light that boomed of my car lights, I wouldn't have noticed the state of his face.

"Holy shit!" I exclaimed, grabbing his shoulders and forcing him to look at me. He rolled his eyes and my eyes widened. His face was absolutely covered in blood and his right eye was now forming a bulging black eye.

"Don't be so dramatic." He said dryly, completely avoiding my eyes.

"Dramatic?" I exclaimed, fighting the urge to swipe the fresh blood away from his face. "You look like your face got run over by a truck!"

He rolled his eyes and grunted once again. "Can you just drive?"

Sighing, I started up my car and drove home in silence. When we entered my neighbourhood instead of Reece's he turned his head to look at me. "Where are you going?"

I spared him a deadpan look before returning my gaze to the road. "You really want your mum and Ellie to see you like that?"

"Good point." He muttered.

We soon arrived back at my house and the second I unlocked the door, I pushed Reece in and kicked it shut behind me. When I turned the light on, I gasped at how badly his face looked. Blood ran down from his lip and I could see they were cut bad from what must have been a hard couple punches. His right eye was turning a dark blue and he had a couple cuts under his eyebrows. "Sit down." I ordered and walked into the kitchen, rummaging for the first aid kit. Not being able to find it, I sighed and grabbed a paper towel and run it under the tap. Walking back into the living room, I rolled my eyes at his lack of order.

He was standing up and leaning against the door. "Sammy its fine, honestly."

"Shut up." I replied, pushing him gently so he flopped down on the sofa. His eyebrows parted in shock as I stepped in between his legs so my chest was level with his face. Awkward right? Shrugging it off, I grabbed the paper towel and began to dab away the blood. I wasn't an expert in this, in fact I had no fucking clue what I was doing but I attempted to help him anyway. He didn't move back as he let me clean up his cuts in comfortable silence. When I rubbed his cut, he winced and I muffled a chuckle.

"Don't be a pussy." He glared up at me but didn't respond.

"Can I ask you a question?" I asked as I awkwardly begun to clean the blood from around and on his lips.

"Shoot." He said, partly muffled as his lips were covered by the paper towel.

"Why did you ring me to help and not Jake or someone else?" I questioned.

He sighed. "Jake would ask a thousand fucking questions and I would end up with a damn migraine by the end of the journey."

I raised my eyebrow at him. "And you wouldn't tell him?"

He rolled his dark green eyes. "It's not a big deal, it doesn't really matter."

I chuckled quietly but I ignored his curious gaze. The nosy part of me really wanted to know who had punched him like that but then I figured that the other person was probably a lot worse off. I had seen Reece in a fight and it wasn't pretty. However, the other part of me respected his privacy and I wouldn't be one of those girls that nagged him to tell me.

I stepped back from his legs and admired my work, even if I had hardly done anything. I narrowed my eyes at him. "You're a very secretive person Reecey." A small smirk appeared on my face as soon as the last word came out and he just glared at me before his lips twitched into a smile.

"Don't call me that." He muttered quietly, completely different from the first time he had said it. I rolled my eyes and took a seat next to him, grabbing the pack of skittles I was snacking on before he had called. Thrusting a handful into my mouth, I smiled sheepishly when I noticed Reece was staring at me with a weird expression on his face before he quickly sobered up and gave me his signature smirk. I thrusted the rest of the pack into his hand and he gave me a grateful smile before tilting the pack into his mouth. Rolling my eyes, I let out a yawn and stood up, earning the curious glance of Reece.

"Are you gonna drop me home or.." He asked awkwardly, scratching the back of his neck.

"You can stay if you want." I blurted out and mentally smacked myself at how eager that sounded.

His eyebrows raised and I could see the amusement dancing in his eyes. I scoffed, whacking him on the shoulder. "Not like that you dork." His grin grew even wider. "I just mean there's a spare bedroom and that way your mum won't have to see you and I can drop you home tomorrow. Unless you want to go now and I'll just grab my coa-" He silenced my rambling with a smile.

"That'll be great thanks."

After turning off all the lights and cleaning up all the bloody tissues, we walked upstairs with Reece following behind. It was pretty fucking dark so I was struggling to see and resembled a blind cat the way I was nearly crashing into the walls. A grateful smile appeared on my lips when I finally found the light switch. As my house was pretty small, it was a simple corridor with 2 bedrooms on one end and my bedroom and the bathroom on the other end. My dad had an ensuite so I pretty much had my own bathroom anyway.

"This is the spare room." I pointed my thumb to it and Reece nodded, saying a quick thanks before opening the door and chuckling.

I turned around and narrowed my eyes. "What?" I hissed, peering other his shoulders and groaning when I saw the room. The double bed was covered in multiple boxes and clothes were stacked up. I forgot when we had cleaned out the attic we had stashed everything in here. Reece turned to me with a smirk.

"Looks comfy."

I rolled my eyes and huffed, stalking down the corridor to my own room. When I opened the door, Reece barged in front of me and smirked down at me. He glanced around my room, his smirk even wider when he saw the large painting of a purple and white elephant hanging on my wall. He turned to me with a questioning gaze and I smiled sadly at it. "My mum painted it for me when I was obsessed with elephants and the colour purple." I replied, not looking at him as my gaze was fixed solely on the painting that brought back many good memories.

Reece didn't say anything, instead he stalked over to my bed and crashed down on it. I snapped my head around and glared at him. "Oh no!" I yelled as he dived under the covers and snuggled into the pillows. He was dressed in dark grey trackies and a hoody anyway so he didn't exactly have to change. If I didn't want him out of my bed, I would probably say he looked kind of adorable snuggling into my pillow like that.

Shut up Sam, what the fuck?

He smirked up at me as I stood in front of him with my arms crossed. "Oh Yes."

I sighed, walking to the other side of my standard sized double bed and put my phone on charge. Quickly tying my long brown hair into a bun at the top of my head, I climbed into bed beside him. His eyes widened at the movement and I smirked, leaning closer to him. I pouted, widening my arms. "Aww Does ickle Reecey want a cuddle."

He scoffed, pushing my arms away as he threw his hoody over his head, leaving him with no t-shirt. Why isn't he wearing a damn shirt?! I stopped my eyes from widening as I glanced at his chest. I had seen it before but oh my god it still amazed me.

Don't stare. Don't stare.

Avoiding his gaze, I quickly leaned over my bedside table and switched off the lamp and snuggled into bed, purposely turning away from him and keeping as far to the edge as I could. I wanted to tell him to go sleep on the sofa but I couldn't. For some very odd reason his presence was comforting and sometimes home alone in a house got a bit lonely. I cursed in my head for overthinking every little aspect. Cole's slept In my bed before and it didn't mean shit.

So why did this feel completely different?

Snapping me out of my thoughts, Reece cleared his throat. I didn't turn to look at him but I swear I felt him shuffling closer to me. "Thanks for today." He said and my eyes widened as I stared at my wall.

"That's what friends are for." I replied and I could hear him scoff behind me.

"You think were friends?" I snapped my head around so now I was facing him. Even in the darkness I could see the amusement in his eyes.

"Fine. Acquaintance."

"Still pushing it."

I narrowed my eyes at him. "Okay. That's what a failing student does for their extremely annoying, asshole of a math tutor." I smirked in the darkness and I could spot the grin on his face.

"Better." Rolling my eyes, I playfully shoved his shoulder and turned my back to him again. My breathe hitched when his chest was suddenly to my back and his warm, minty breathe was hovering over the bare skin of my neck.

"Night Sammy."

He leaned back and I could feel him also turning around in the bed so his back was also to mine. My heart was beating a million times faster than normal and the movement sent shivers down my spine.

Why the hell was I reacting this way?

"Night Reece."